Champions now without their signature/defining ability(s)

Oh, he's semi now! He was fully aquatic in the past. Didn't do anything aquatic but circadians since the revamp

 

Well, it's moot for him. I just mean that you don't need a ton of water for semis and there are a ton of good semis. But, yeah, give Tidemaster back High Tide.

 

The problem with fully aquatic would have been that as the water is generated after the champ moves he'd lumber everywhere. 2x2's avoided that since they only need to be on 2 tiles to count as in water.

Also, to not miss the topic all the time, yes, give back Tidey his Tide.

 

I'll just list ones that I have noticed from my rune collection. There are probably many others I haven't noticed simply for not having faced or used them.

Korona: Lost oblivion shield (but she's still holding a huge shield) and lost bloodseeker to upgrades, where it has to compete with thirst for battle
Goblin Gloombringer: Lost leech vitality
Fleshblight Zombie: Lost reconstitute
High Warlock: Had cast: repurpose replaced by ravish
Obsidian Venger: Lost decay (or whatever it was called; the ability that mimiced Skull of Decay)
Angel of Mercy: Lost amplify healing (or whatever it was called; it mimiced Ankh of Valdac)
Tundra Whisper: Lost the old three wishes (but admittedly it would have been completely imbalanced with the new system)
Kanen Slipped: Lost thirst for battle (and aggressive/assault in the upgrades)
Soulthirster: Now has to choose between brain eater and gluttony
Bonewing: Lost everything.... well, dread, shatter, flanking, and range. While this rune was definitely imbalanced, I think I'm mostly protesting the dread loss, because FW lost a couple dread champs
Aspect of Death: Lost dread.

There's quite a few others that had some extremely painful nerfs that I won't list here, but these are the ones that suffered a loss of identity, rather than just a nerf. I will add that I did agree that most of these champions needed nerfing, but merely wish it had been done in a different way.

 

Wretched Witches without AoE AP denial aren't worth 80 nora. That's for sure.

 

Locust lost LOCUST Swarm!

Emphasis may or may not be mine.

 

Drakewing Swarm lost swam. Slipworm lost constrict.

Gunna say Kanen Slipped losing his crazy abilities also applies. I think Owl misinterpreted his art. He's holding that cultist because he killer her because he's lost it, not because he's mad over her death. That's why he had faithless and independent -- vengeful doesn't make thematic sense.

 

Shallaxy- lost stone trap
Bloodbinder count- Lost cast dead zone voodoo
Coragh- Lost brain eater

Those are the ones that bothered me the most because all of those abilities are so cool.

 

While some of these are worth mentioning to me, such as Angel and Venger, i'd also like to point out that while they may have lost a previous identity that doesn't mean they lost a signature or defining ability which I believe most people associate with that Champion bringing that ability to the game. While some of them are instead 'defining' as in the role I don't think those should apply that much. A lot of champions had their roles changed and were toned down and that's a good thing. But losing unique abilities such as a decay or healing amplification isn't moving towards the 'higher rarity for unique abilities' pattern I personally want to encourage.

On the other hand though I will say some of those seem for balance issues rather than them losing their signature ability. Also, while I do miss Cast: Repurpose, Ravish seems to be a way for him to get a new signature ability (that only he has currently) instead of an ability that may have been considered too overpowered in previous form.

Decay and Healing may have just been for balance reasons but I do think Venger still kept his flavor with his Desecrated Ground ability. I think the Angel feels unique in her role but I would have enjoyed her still having a unique skill.

Again, just my opinion and others may not feel the same way.

 

NC Cardinal lost equalize
Magnus lost -1 speed

 

Equalize was not signature on NCC. Really, it's not that complicated.

NCT: Bookburn

 

I thought we were just crying about what runes we used got nerfed...


Bookburn is on upgrades doe

 

Example of sig ability.

 

Veilwalker : Cast Despoil???

 

Umhu

 

Stone Colossus STILL does not have Colossal, but did get Crushing Blows, which is kind of a nice compromise.

Dwarven Mogaslicer STILL does not have Hunter: Moga and remains unrunnable.

Animated Armor lost everything offensive about him, Assault, Cleave, Overkill (He was the first champ to have it)...I really kind of loved that ability set, as it made it very hilarious and sort of ironic to have armor that wanted to kill things. And he also lost Weaken Spells, I just noticed.

Crystal Golem lost Force Barrier, the only ability that would let him even know the shoebox was something you could be out of, and remains woefully unrunnable. This is especially hurtful because GRE lost all of his Alt-Damage Resistances, leaving Constructs with nothing in terms of alt-damage mitigation anymore. Even the Resistance Fire on other Grobles has gone missing.

Silverclan Hoplite lost Aid Defense and Vigilance. That was his THING. He was a Spartan phalanx unit. Stronger when with allies, and he helped those allies survive.

Stone Dragon lost Antagonize and Planar Bound. Those were two of the cornerstones of his kit. He wasn't fast, he wasn't a bruiser, but once you got him in place he STAYED there, making sure he was the one being chipped at while other Constructs did work.

Whitestone Gargoyle lost Detection. This one kind of bothers me because Constructs even more than IS as a whole hurts from the reign of the UV crutch, and we were FINALLY starting to break free...and then it's gone. It was a perfectly flavorful ability on a champion themed to be a guardian statue.

Lodestone Armory lost Improve Speed at the same time as many Constructs stuck in 5 Speed Hell lost their speed upgrade. As a double whammy, he was slapped with Unequippable! If there was ONE champion Unequippable should never be on, it's something called Lodestone ARMORY.

Dwarven Tinkerer lost Recharge and her charge-generation abilities. That was the only reason to RUN her. Unlike the Engineer who had a better summon and higher Boost level, Tinkerer could stack Tough faster, Manic more than once a turn, set up an Electric Aura FIELD or pull off some mean field repairs. The only issue was she'd run low on AP to do all this with because 5 Speed. So now she has 6 Spd, but less to do with the extra AP.

Clockwork Swarm has to choose between Split and Swarm now. That was KIND of the whole point of the champion. If you didn't finish them all in one turn, a new one was built.

It's just...such a mess right now. Actual rocks would be less bland than constructs right now. They're not weak, just horrible uninteresting.

 

This thread is pointless. Defining abilites are acctually not what "defines" the champ, what defines them is how much ass you kick with it.

 

I think about ten people missed the "signature defining abilities" part of the title.

 

What a complete load of Bane Shift.

 

It is true, though, if you played the game you would know.
Oh, snap.